Swarm Trap - May 12th 2023

On Friday, May 12th

• 2:00 PM - active scouting at one swarm trap, zero scouting at other traps 
• 3:00 PM - very active scouting at one swarm trap, zero scouting at other traps
• 6:24 PM - air is thick with bees
• 6:48 PM - the majority of bees settled on the outside of the swarm trap and began to move in
• 8:23 PM - bees reversed and are on the outside of the trap

On Saturday, May 13th

• setup 8-frame deep box near the swarm trap; in the last photo, check out the homemade rectangular UV-reactive blue 8-frame entrance
• add a queen excluder beneath the deep box
• spray the bees with sugar water
• carefully lower the swarm trap
• carefully walk the swarm trap to the deep box
• spray the bees with sugar water
• brush bees into the deep box
• add frames
• move the pheromone lure from the swarm trap to the landing board
• add an inner cover and telescoping lid
• after 2 hours, all the loose bees have reoriented to their new home

On Sunday, May 14th

• add a gallon pail feeder with 32 ounces of 1:1 syrup

I'm guessing that 

• the swarm was hanging very close to their preferred swarm trap, and the scout bees ignored my other swarm traps
  
• this swarm contains more than 1 queen

condensation on cloake board

52 °F and there's a puddle of something on the cloake board landing area.  I dip my finger into the liquid and confirm the taste of simple water - nothing sweet about it.  Stacking the medium sized swarm atop an overwintered hive creates enough combined warm moist respiration to create condensation. Condensation, common in winter has taken me by surprise in spring.

first check on swarm capture

 

 

Two swarms are left undisturbed and this is the first check of their comb building.

First photo - A small swarm (captured March 13th) built comb on 4 out of 5 deep frames, but just along 1/4 of the frame length near the hive entrance.

A medium sized swarm (captured March 23rd) built comb on 5 of 8 deep frames and mostly away from the hive entrance.

Not surprising, comb building is proportional to swarm size.

Last photo - I added a cloake board (with its metal tray) beneath the medium swarm, all of which sits atop an over-wintered hive (without its inner cover and telescoping cover). Later, the metal tray will be removed and the bees can communicate through the cloake board's built-in queen excluder.  The maker of cloake board did not have this non-queen rearing purpose in mind, but it works for me.

off-label use of cloake board

I purchased the cloake board with an intention to raise emergency queens, but I've drifted into off-label territory.  My success with two swarm traps catches and limited bee yard space encouraged me to combine the swarms with the cloake board.  Both entrances face in the same direction and the movable floor is removed.   For several weeks, these swarms have been connected by way of the queen excluder which is integrated into the cloake board.